Small Packages: Prompted Ficlets
by scribblemyname
Summary: Unrelated drabbles and ficlets for MCU/Avengers, canonical couples and mostly Clint/Natasha.
1. The Loneliest Number: Steve x Sharon

**A/N**: Prompted by daria234 on the comment_fic LJ community: MCU, Steve/Any, a rare evening alone

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**The Loneliest Number**

It was rare any more that Steve got to be truly alone. Ever since the Battle of New York, SHIELD had seemed determined as a group to keep him company.

"Natasha." He sighed into the phone. "Really, I just want to be alone in my apartment kitchen making dinner. No movie night, no date, no..."

"Cultural acclimation," Natasha agreed. "I get it."

Whoever was knocking on the door didn't.

"Coming," Steve growled as he pulled his food off the burner and went to answer. "Kate."

"Peace offering?" She held up an apple pie and smiled.

He laughed. "Come on in."


	2. You Call This Recreation?: Clint x Tasha

**A/N**: Written for the LJ comment_fic prompt by likewinning: MCU, Natasha/any, vacation. 100 words

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**You Call This Recreation?**

"A vacation is an extended period of recreation, especially one spent away from home or in traveling," Natasha read off of her Starkphone.

Steve sighed and glanced around at the thick woods around her cabin in the middle of… nowhere. "We had them back then too."

"Hm." She moved on. "Recreation is an activity done for enjoyment when one is not working."

"You enjoy it out here?" he asked, vaguely curious.

Natasha shrugged and closed her phone. "No. _He_ does. You can shoot his bow." She pushed open the door.

"What?" an indignant voice demanded. "My bow and—"

"My Clint."


	3. Maybe Later: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LJ comm prompt by daria234: any, any/any, jumping in a big pile of leaves

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**Maybe Later**

"Clint. You're acting like a child." Natasha stood with her hands on her hips on the back patio, a slight disapproving frown on her face as she stared down at him.

Clint sat up in the big pile of autumn leaves he had raked out of the yard just like she asked him an hour ago as he studied the expression on her face. "You've never jumped in a pile of leaves before, have you?" he demanded.

She huffed an exasperated sigh. "That's beside the point. You'll have to rake them all— Clint!"

He managed to drop her in the leaves before her reflexes landed a sharp kick in his side and they both went down. He was laughing. She was sputtering in anger.

For all her mock rage though, Clint knew she'd never had a childhood. She hadn't made snow angels and gone sledding and had pillow fights and, apparently, hadn't jumped in a raked up pile of leaves. He'd had to introduce her over the years to all the fun things she had missed growing up. They sprawled side by side on the ground for a moment.

"Now," he said breathlessly, "you can teach our kids how to do that."

Natasha stared at him. "We bought a house, Barton, not—"

He put a finger to her lips. "I know. Just… think about it."

She picked up a handful of leaves and attacked him.

He decided to take that as a maybe later.


	4. Dance With Me: Clint x Natasha x Bucky

**A/N**: Prompt by likewinning at the Comment Fic LJ comm: MCU, Natasha/any or gen, knives don't have your back.

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**Dance With Me**

The other SHIELD agents whisper about Natasha in the halls. They watch her fight Clint down onto the mats and watch her clean her guns and her knives with the same expressionless face she gives them when they throw their jokes around. She is famous for the way every part of her body is a weapon and a tool, the way she used to be legendary for working alone.

It's a lie. It's always been a lie. She's bathed in blood, but knives never had her back.

She fights Clint down onto the mats and in the fierceness of his motion, she feels the ghost of a metal arm and the grip of stronger flesh than hers. She feels her partner's gaze heavy on her when they work as the legendary Strike Team Delta and she remembers the awed hushed whispers that surrounded the Black Widow and her Winter Soldier. They think she does not understand partnerships.

"Dance with me," she laughed as a young girl, red hair flying as James fought her down onto the mats, as she flew against him with fluid speed. "Dance with me," she says to Clint as they spar with limbs and bow and knives and nothing at all but their hands and strength.

She remembers lifting herself en pointe, remembers the fleet steps of couru on the ballet floor alone. But it's a lie. It always has been.


	5. Taken: Maria & Natasha x Clint

**A/N**: Written for the prompt MCU, any/any, best wingman ever on the Comment Fic LiveJournal community by daria234. I wanted to do Clint as the wingman keeping off unwanted attention, then this happened instead.

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**Taken**

"I need your help."

Maria Hill dragged her startled gaze up from the report she'd been typing a minute before to Natasha Romanoff standing in her doorway, looking the epitome of calm, cool, and collected. "Something wrong with your assignment?"

A beat of silence, though on Natasha, it didn't look like hesitation so much as a deliberate pause, then the agent came in and closed the door behind her before sitting in the supplicant's seat, as Barton liked to call it.

"Barton's on a deep ops and Fury wants me to work with Rogers."

"Yes," Maria said slowly. None of this was news.

"People forget." Natasha shrugged her shoulders. "He's not my partner anymore."

The places clicked into place, and Maria nearly facepalmed. Natasha and Clint had recently decided to start a romantic relationship and requested reassignment in accordance with regs. Clint's old position as Natasha's wingman to fend off unwanted masculine attention had seemed superfluous in light of that, but Steve Rogers hadn't exactly been involved in a five-year-old betting pool on when the two would get together either.

"I'm sure he saw the two of you... together..." Maria stopped at the look on Natasha's face. "You want me to be your wingman?"

"I want to show that I'm taken," Natasha said, a faint hint of exasperation entering her tone. "I've never done that before."

"Ah. Right." Maria logged off her computer and grabbed her purse. "Come on."

"Where are we going?"

"The jeweler's."

Natasha looked completely calm, but there was something in the way that she moved and... smiled? at the agents they were passing in the hall that told Maria she'd moved to a cover persona, a sure sign this was outside of her comfort zone.

"Relax. It doesn't have to be a ring. We could get a pin or a bracelet or anything that says 'Clint' to the discerning eye," Maria told her. "I've done this before. I got my sister an engagement ring when she wanted to stay single for the four years of college."

Natasha shot her a disbelieving look. "Something understated."

"Yes, ma'am." 

* * *

They bought a necklace. Natasha had wandered the store, then ordered them to bring out their catalog, then hauled off to the other location to retrieve her prize: an understated necklace that on close inspection showed a tiny silver arrow.

"If you need any more assistance..." Maria offered but let her voice trailed off.

Natasha smiled, a genuine barely there smile that belonged to none of her covers. "Never mention it."

"Agreed."


	6. But What About the Wings?: Tony & Sam

**A/N**: For the prompt author's choice, author's choice, I would have liked to try those wings myself at the Comment Fic LiveJournal community by tigriswolf.

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**But What About the Wings?**

"What do you mean 'His wings don't work anymore'?" Tony demanded of Steve before Sam had barely made it in the door. "I wanted to try them!"

Steve Rogers gave a very longsuffering sigh and looked pleadingly at Pepper, who focused her attention on warmly greeting Sam Wilson.

"Is he for real?" Sam asked her.

Pepper gave a pained smile.

Steve just gestured between the other two men. "May I introduce the one and only Tony Stark."

"Got that right," Tony agreed.


	7. Hey, Robin Hood: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: For the prompt author's choice, author's choice, time travel never works by tigriswolf on the Comment Fic LJ community.

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**Hey, Robin Hood**

"You know the real problem with time travel?"

"What, Clint?" Natasha asked wearily as she aligned the orange-colored gem just so.

"Besides that this thing is the second-cousin to the Tesseract." He eyed the thing askance.

"Brother probably."

"Could be a sister."

"No. It couldn't."

He shrugged and went on. "Time travel never works, okay? Whatever we've done in the past, we've already done it. We can't _change_ anything."

"Our presence has been detected in the fairytale age, Barton. We're going."

"What _is_ the fairytale age anyway?" He pulls on his arm guard and wishes for his mechanical quiver rather than the plain one, but orders were orders, and at least his weapon of choice wouldn't look out of place.

Natasha disappeared into the bathroom without answering and emerged looking like something out of a movie. "At least we'll know now if Robin Hood really was real."

"I am not pretending to be Robin."

"Whatever you say."

They grasped opposite ends of the time gem, twisted it between them, and disappeared in a flash of orange light.


	8. Double Negative: Pepper x Tony Emma

**A/N**: Prompt by ivotedforsaxon at the Comment Fic LJ comm: Any/any, any/any + any, "Don't look now, but I think that might be my ex." Crossovered slightly with X-Men.

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**Double Negative**

"Don't look now, but I think that might be my ex."

Pepper sighed. "Tony. Half of the female population of this city is your ex."

"No," he mumbled next to her. "My _ex_ ex. The one who tried to talk me into taking over the world."

"That's a double negative." Pepper smiled over his shoulder. "You mean Emma Frost, dear. Well, you might as well say hello because she's the CEO of the company we're meeting with."


	9. When Silence Falls: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Prompt by icarus_chained for a 6-word story at Comment Fic LJ comm: Author's choice, author's choice, don't be afraid

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**When Silence Falls  
**

"Trust me."

Clint holds Natasha, unhearing.


	10. What Is Mine: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Written for the prompt author's choice, I don't need a gun to take back what's mine at the Comment Fic LiveJournal community by ammcj062.

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**What Is Mine  
**

As they hauled Clint's unconscious body away, Natasha considered that Loki had meant for one or the other to kill each other. Certainly, Plan A was for Natasha to be the one to die, but Plan B would have worked just as well: put Clint's blood on her hands and watch her weep.

She breathed in the depths of the Helicarrier, spine straight, heart beating a little too quickly.

She didn't need to kill Clint to take him back. Loki was the neophyte here. Loki had discovered the power to make toys of people and was playing with it like a gleeful, reckless child. Natasha had spent the last several decades proving that a human mind was more resilient than her handlers and makers had ever believed, than Loki would ever believe.

Natasha followed the other agents quietly and went to take her partner back.


	11. Avengers Team Dinner: Pepper x Tony

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LJ comm prompt: MCU, any, The best way to a superhero's heart is through his stomach by classics_lover.

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**Avengers Team Dinner**

Tony made a point of welcoming the Avengers to their new tower by building them each a floor, having Pepper do the interior decorating (she volunteered after seeing his first selections), then showering them all with generous gifts that left them wondering if he was entirely sane.

Pepper's method was a little subtler. She cooked for them.

"You should ask _Natalie_ what their favorite foods are," Tony suggested when he passed through the kitchen with his tenth round of coffee. Dummy trailed behind him dutifully on Pepper's orders to make sure he wouldn't get to drink it.

"I'm not spying on them," Pepper pointed out. "They'd feel _less_ trusting if I did that."

No, she made them her own favorite Sunday dinner, the one her mother used to make when she invited over guests after church. It was the first Avengers team dinner, and she told them what each dish was and how her mother used to have her help.

They each thanked her, some more dutifully than others, but at the end of the meal, it was Tony who gave her an eyeful and asked, "Are we all now obligated to share memories?"

Pepper sighed. "No strings attached, Tony."

After that, she found she got along with the Avengers just fine.


	12. Food for Mere Mortals: Darcy, Thor xJane

**A/N**: For the prompt author's choice, author's choice, just a dash of this, just a hint of that by tigriswolf on the Comment Fic LJ comm.

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**Food for Mere Mortals**

"A dash! A dash!" Darcy yanked the bottle of cayenne pepper out of Thor's hand and glared. "Mere mortals must be able to eat this dinner."

Jane came in the kitchen and sneezed. "What in the world?"

"It's not of this world," Darcy muttered darkly while Thor just grinned enthusiastically at Jane.

"We are cooking chili!"

"Thor," Darcy used her most commanding voice. "Put on another pot of beans. We need to dilute this."

Jane bravely sampled a spoonful of the chili and turned red. She nodded at Darcy, shot her a thumbs up at the plan, and headed for the fridge and milk.

"Are you all right, my love?" Thor asked, genuine concern in his tone.

Jane nodded, still guzzling milk. She lowered the glass. "More beans," she rasped.


	13. An Untimely Interruption: Tony x Pepper

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LJ comm prompt by evil_little_dog: MCU, Tony/Pepper, A quiet moment (shattered).

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**An Untimely Interruption**

Tony was just getting ready to get down on his knees in front of Pepper at the window when suddenly the glass shattered, Pepper shrieked, and both of them dove under a flying projectile.

"What is this?" Tony picked up an... arrow and narrowed his eyes. "Hawkeye!"

"Yes?" two voices asked in unison, one male and one decidedly female. Clint Barton dropped in through the hole in the glass, shaking his head, and shot a disapproving look at the little brunette girl who followed behind him looking sheepish.

"What is this?" Tony demanded.

Pepper started laughing behind him.

"Training," Clint commented dryly. "Apologize, Kate." He gestured to the girl.

"Wait." Tony looked back and forth between them. "There's two of you? Two archers running around in Kevlar doing god-awful things to my architecture."

"Sorry." Kate definitely aimed said apology more in Pepper's direction than Tony's. "Hawkeye didn't mention the arrow could go through glass."

"Well, _Hawkeye_ didn't aim her arrow right in the first place," Clint countered. "Come on. Let's try again."

"Elsewhere," Tony demanded with his sternest voice possible.

Pepper could barely keep the smile off her face but nodded beside him. "Definitely elsewhere."

"I really am sorry," Kate called over her shoulder as Clint shoved her in the direction of the elevator.


	14. Not Again: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Written for the LJ Comment Fic comm prompt by creepy_shetan: author's choice, any, take the stairs next time.

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**Not Again  
**

"This is the fifth time in the last thirteen months that you have jumped off a building and claimed it was a decent exfil," Natasha said brusquely. Her hands were even more brusque as she pulled out slivers of glass with the tweezers from hell.

Clint struggled not to wince (did that once, hurt worse than going through the window) and pointed out, "It was that or be roasted by Chitauri."

"And last time?" she demanded archly. "When you jumped off a skyscraper onto a moving helicopter?"

"There wasn't room for both it and me on top of the building. Ouch! J—, Tasha, have a heart."

Her hands pulled back a moment, long enough for him to shake out some of the worst of the tension. He should probably be in SHIELD's medical getting his injuries taken care of, but long habit and limited trust meant they usually stitched each other up and took care of anything less than surgery, neck injury, or head trauma.

"Next time you get tempted to jump off a building," Natasha said abruptly, going back to work on his back, "take the stairs."


	15. Avenging Angel: Natasha x Clint

**A/N**: For the Comment Fic LJ community prompt MCU, Sam/Steve or Tony or Clint or Bucky or Natasha, becoming an Avenger by daria234.

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**Avenging Angel  
**

Natasha was the only one who came for vengeance. Tony was ready to, Clint was close to it, and Thor might have been if he weren't more interested in rescuing his little brother that was and had disappeared behind this heartless trickster.

Loki had taken Clint and taken the free will that had always been his trademark, the one thing that hard living and almost dying and killing too many souls had never taken from him, the one thing he'd offered to Natasha that had the power to bring her in to SHIELD in the first place.

It was unforgivable and unacceptable. Regimes fell every day and Natasha wasn't actually all that interested in avenging the earth if it fell, just one man: Clint.

So she put off her stealth and her espionage mindset and kept the deadliness of her namesake. She became a soldier. She waded into war. She took her vengeance and became an Avenger.


	16. A Benevolent Dictatorship: Tony & Bruce

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LJ comm prompt by icarus_chained: Author's choice, author's choice, "Mad Scientists rule the world. Badly." (Girl Genius).

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**A Benevolent Dictatorship  
**

"Bruce, my friend," Tony interrupted said friend's muttering over a beaker. "You are an excellent mad scientist. We both are."

Bruce glanced up with little interest.

"But you are a terrible ruler of the world." Tony waved off Dummy. "JARVIS, please bring up the stats on India."

"Tony, not now. I'm about to have a breakthrough."

JARVIS obediently began listing the stats for unemployment, medical care, wealth per capita, and everything else for India.

"You said that last week," Tony pointed out. "Pepper has successfully dragged me away from my experiments long enough for me to delegate to her my decisions for what we want done in Africa, but you have done nothing with the one part of the world you asked for. I'm disappointed, Bruce."

This time, Bruce's stare lasted much longer. "Tony. You are an excellent mad scientist. Your puppy dog eyes need work."

Pepper's heels clicked on the floor behind them and both men winced.

"You both rule the world badly," she admonished them. "Dummy."

The bot rolled forward and handed them each a cup of coffee.

"Bruce, I need your decisions on fifteen major action items," she informed him brusquely. "With your permission, I can handle the details from there."

"All right," he muttered and followed behind her.

Tony clapped him on the shoulder. "It's for the benefit of mankind!"

"When was the last time either of you slept?" Pepper asked.

Neither answered, though Tony's flustered hemming and hawing was perhaps more condemning than Bruce's glazed, slightly crazed look.

"That's what I thought." She shooed them into a conference room. "You can run your benevolent dictatorship for the next fifteen minutes, then I'm ordering you both to bed."

Perhaps it said something about who truly wielded the power that both of them meekly replied, "Yes, ma'am."

"You'll join me, right?" Tony begged, applying his puppy dog eyes again.

Pepper laughed softly in return but didn't answer.


	17. Hindsight: Bucky x Natasha x Clint

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LJ community prompt by tigriswolf: Author's choice, author's choice, hindsight is heartbreaking.

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**Hindsight  
**

"I should have taken you with me," Natasha whispered, her breath warm against his temple, her fingers delicately combing through the tangled strands of his hair.

The Winter Soldier leaned back in the hospital bed, pulling gently away from her touch. "Hindsight is perfect, Nataschenka. I don't blame you." Had she asked, he would have turned her down and turned her in. He knew what she did not, that she could never have taken her with him.

But she looked at him with wounded eyes and he could almost taste her regret. "I loved you," she said softly. Her hands knotted together in her lap.

He stared at her, breath catching. Steve was... everything. The Winter Soldier was beginning to remember Steve, remember his best friend, and in turn, remember Bucky, but he wasn't Bucky again just yet and the Winter Soldier had loved _Natasha_. He hadn't even realized until this moment how much he had counted on her being here for him.

Loved. Past tense. Loved.

He looked up, saw her gaze had flitted to the doorway, and followed it with his own to the archer, Hawkeye. She had loved the Winter Soldier; now, she did not.

The Winter Soldier—no, _Bucky_ forced himself to smile. "Your new life suits you."

Natasha gave a small, strangled laugh. "You mean HYDRA masquerading as SHIELD?"

Hindsight was perfect.


	18. First Date wan Acrophile: Maria x Clint

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LJ community prompt by yuidirnt: any, any unconventional/rare pairing, first date.

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**First Date with an Acrophile  
**

"You want me to climb up the fire escape?" Maria Hill repeated slowly because there was no way she hadn't misheard or else that Clint Barton was absolutely crazy.

Clint grinned at her, two beers in one hand, as he swung out onto said fire escape and tossed back at her, "The view's incredible and you said you wanted to watch a sunset."

She swore to herself this first date would be the last one involving a rooftop _ever_ and climbed up behind him, regretting emphatically ever mentioning she loved to watch the sunset.


	19. Stops on the Road to Love: Clint x Tasha

**A/N**: Written for the LJ Comment Fic comm prompt by nevcolleil: Any, any, a love story in three sentences.

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**Three Stops on the Road to Love  
**

The first time they met in Budapest, they started on opposite sides of a complex operation, ended up saving each other's lives in a mutual bid for survival, and holed up afterward in a safehouse, sharing vodka and stories until she told him to call her Natasha and didn't retract when Clint mentioned that was a name between friends.

The second time they met, Clint dragged her out of a burning hospital _(she'd lit the match, she was guilty, and her ledger dripped)_ and held her on a safehouse floor as she wept for the dead children and her own memory of a burning building before the Red Room came to take her away.

The third time, Natasha saw him lower his bow and hold out his hand with a simple request to come with him, stay with him because they made each other whole _(and he loved her but he didn't say it, and she loved him and she did)_.


	20. You See, It Was Like This: Clint & Darcy

**A/N**: Written for the prompt by yuidirnt MCU, any, someone smuggles a kitten inside the Avengers Tower in the Comment Fic LiveJournal community.

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**You See, It Was Like This  
**

"Why," Pepper called out as she came around the corner to stop in front of Darcy's desk, "is Agent Barton hiding in the vent above your desk?"

Darcy shuffled papers as she struggled to come up with a non-incriminating answer that didn't involve, "We weren't up to any funny business or anything, I can promise you; it's just that Clint found this baby kitten all alone in the rain outside and looking like a drowned rat and—"

"You'd make a terrible spy," Clint interjected dryly from the vent above Darcy's desk while the aforementioned kitten, now dry, mewed in agreement.


	21. Tearless: Natasha & Yelena

**A/N**: Written for the Comment Fic LiveJournal community prompt by tigriswolf: Author's choice, author's choice, the women in the two black veils didn't bother to cry. Ambiguous 'verse. Could be comics, could be MCU.

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**Tearless  
**

The women in the two black veils don't bother to cry: the one on the left has blonde hair and is called Yelena, the one on the right has red hair and is called Natalia, and the man going into the ground is Alexi, the Red Guardian, Natalia's husband.

"He died for the glory of Russia," they had told her and called her the widow when introducing her to her new handlers.

Natalia hadn't loved him, but he had been hers. and as she stood tearless beside his grave as the dirt when over him, she decided to learn what she could from these men who bartered and sold her and her skills, then she would extract payment for taking Alexi from her.


	22. Nobody Does Shopping Like Tony Stark

**A/N**: Written for classic_lover's prompt for a 3-sentence fic in the Comment Fic LiveJournal community: Any, any, let's go shopping.

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******Nobody Does Shopping Like Tony Stark**

"Pepper," Tony demanded, "where are you going without me?"

Natasha and Pepper dissolved into giggles, a certain sign that Natasha was practicing a new cover (and why had he invited the super-spy into his Tower again?) and this would not go well unsupervised, but only Pepper answered, managing her usual no-nonsense tone she gave him, "We're going shopping."

"I see," Tony answered and smirked before pulling on his shades, holding out his arm, and announcing, "I can do shopping."


	23. I'm Fine, Really: Tony x Pepper

**A/N**: Written for nevcolleil's prompt on the LJ Comment Fic comm: Any, any, what he or she would say about his/her death if he/she knew exactly how/when/etc. he/she would die.

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******I'm Fine, Really  
**

Tony rolled his eyes at Pepper's illionth pointed reminder that day that excessive amounts of alcohol were bad for the liver and the good judgment that was intrinsically necessary to flying an iron man suit or driving a car.

"Pepper, I'm not going to die from cirrhosis," he reminded her, "or a vehicular accident. It is inevitable that I am going to die for mankind by intentionally sacrificing myself for the greater good, which this"—he held up the bottle pointedly—"is not; so love you, but no, I'm not going to stop drinking tonight until I'm good and drunk."


	24. Interview wHistory: Steve, Bucky, Tasha

**A/N**: For tigriswolf's prompt on the Comment Fic Livejournal community: Avengers movieverse, Steve + Bucky, my place is with my brother.

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******Interview with History**

"You want to bring a known HYDRA threat and keep him in my Tower?" Tony asked incredulously in that understated rambling voice he used when he had no intention of being anything other than _the_ Tony Stark. "I know you've been through a lot lately, Captain, but have you seen your therapist?"

Steve was immovable. "I'm bringing him in."

"This isn't a stray dog, you know," Tony went on with that I'm-being-oh-so-reasonable stream of words, "or even a super-spy slash assassin like Barton or Romanoff. I hear they bring them in all the time, but this is a HYDRA assassin who doesn't even remember you."

"It's Bucky. My place is with him."

A long sigh. This really wasn't the best way to handle this conversation, over the phone with Steve and Bucky outside the locked gate while Tony kept it locked and stared at them through the security cameras.

"I'm going to regret ever giving you a suite here, aren't I?" Tony said. "No, I'm not because I already do. Hang on a sec."

He held the phone away but it didn't actually stop his yelling from carrying through. "Romanoff! Romanoff. Do you want this guy in here? I'd feel much more comfortable if I knew he wasn't going to kill us in our beds."

After a very long moment, Natasha's voice murmured something soft to Tony the phone didn't quite catch. She was staring at the security camera monitors.

"James?"

Another very, very long moment.

Steve said, "Hang on a sec. Okay, say it again."

"James."

A breath, a heartbeat, a hesitant pause.

"Natalia." It was Bucky's voice, and it sounded as hesitant as his breath.

"Nat's frowning over here, buddy," Tony said. "Try again."

"Natashenka."

A sharp inhale, followed by a slow exhalation. Natasha dropped the phone with an audible thump into Tony's hand. "Keep him."

"D—" Tony muttered and unlocked the door.


	25. Forging Anew: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Written for likewinning's prompt on the Comment Fic LJ comm: Avengers movieverse, Natasha, We Disappear.

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**********Forging Anew**

"All my covers are blown," Natasha had told Steve, speaking the truth on the surface, content to say no more. She didn't tell him that all her covers had been blown before. She didn't tell him that she'd had to make herself all over again after she defected. She didn't tell him that he really couldn't change her nature of adapt, blend, fold herself into another different truth or lie—disappear.

She made a new cover within three days and walked out with ten blank passports and IDs and five filled with possibilities. She bought an engagement ring, laid her one-time Russian accent on thick, and showed up as an immigrant bride where she knew Clint was holing up. She even managed to get a smile out of him when she did.

"You always knew how to make a cover," he told her, shoving over a cup of unholy black coffee across the table.

Natasha sniffed at it, passed, and gave a pointed look at his forging materials spread out in a mess between them. "Like you don't."

He shrugged and held out his hand.

She tossed him the matching ring.


	26. A Bargain for Futures: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Written for likewinning's prompt Avengers movieverse, Natasha/any or gen: _(I am not a child.) (But you have not known love.) (These are my ghosts, the spaces amid love.)_ (from _Everything Is Illuminated_) on the Comment Fic LJ community.

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**************A Bargain for Futures**

"You can make a different call," the archer had told her, the American, always so certain of his ground.

"I'm not a child," Natasha growled back as they walked down a narrow alleyway in Budapest. "Don't appeal to my innocence."

He stopped, leaned back his head, and counted to ten in... Latin?

She decided at that moment that she needed to learn Latin.

"How long are we going to do this dance, Widow?" he finally asked, dropping his head to stare at her intently but somehow imploringly.

They had met a few times when he was still a freelancer, once or twice on the same side of an operation, once or twice on opposites. They'd only met twice since he joined up with SHIELD. Hawkeye was a colleague she tolerated, despite his odd proclivity for _finding_ her if she happened to be anywhere in the same area.

He stepped forward, his gaze and nearness suddenly palpable.

She stepped back.

"I could appeal to your affections," he said easily, mouth quirking in a small but noticeable grin.

Natasha sniffed. "Love is for children."

"Your friendship then," Hawkeye countered. "We are friends, right?" He leaned an arm on the brick wall beside her.

She looked at him and sighed. "You never give up, do you?"

"Nope."

He had always liked it when they fought on the same side of an operation. She hadn't. He bumped into the ghosts and spaces left inside her that the Winter Soldier had used to fill. Natasha may have put aside love, but she was not so heartless as she let on.

"When you have me dead to rights with an arrow and I _cannot_ escape," she told him, "I will accept your offer."

"Either that or the other country, huh?" He smiled, couldn't seem to even help himself. "You like me better than death."

She liked him better than almost anyone, but Natasha only smiled, stepped on tiptoes, and murmured in his ear, "In your dreams," before she left him chuckling behind her.


	27. Sixth Time's a Charm: Bucky & Natasha

**A/N**: For likewinning's prompt Avengers movieverse, Bucky Barnes (/any or gen), I guess this personal hide-and-seek is not unusual. And some people are 'it' all their lives - hopelessly it. (from East of Eden) on the Comment Fic LiveJournal community.

* * *

******************Sixth Time's a Charm**

"Five times you've put a bullet in me," Natasha growled in Russian and downed her vodka. "Five times and you think I will let you share my space again."

Steve stared back and forth between her and Bucky, not quite understanding the flickers of confusion then recognition on Bucky's face.

"Five times," Bucky said slowly, in English.

"You shot me when I asked you to leave Russia with me," she reminded him, pointedly keeping the Russian. "You shot me when I left without you. You've been tracking me down and sticking bullets in me ever since. Hide and go seek. I keep hiding and you keep showing up, and now you want to be an Avenger?"

Bucky stared at her, brows drawn together in a dark frown of concentration. Finally he huffed out a sigh and said, again in the _English_ everyone else staring at their interchange could understand, "Natashenka, you know you would have done the same."

She studied him coolly. Natasha had always been able to hold her liquor well.

"You can shoot me. Will that make you feel better?" he demanded, exasperated in the way he'd often been when she was a little spitfire in training and he was the unlucky comrade ordered to train her.

She cocked her head, considering that. "If we play this game again, I will."

He leaned forward and gave her a peck on the forehead. "Agreed."

Clint leaned back and shook out his newspaper. "And that, Tony, is why I told you I don't make her mad."


	28. That Invisible Invincible Strength: Thor

**A/N**: For likewinning's prompt on the Comment Fic LJ comm: author's choice, author's choice, They were all slender, frail creatures with wondering eyes and soft fluttery voices. But they were made out of thin invisible steel. (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn).

* * *

**********************That Invisible, Invincible Strength**

Thor was always careful with Jane when he wrapped her up in his arms and held her close. She and those born of her world seemed so fragile and frail to his Aesir sensibilities, so easily broken, but then he would see what his fellow guardians in Midgard, the Avengers, could accomplish on the battlefield and watch his beloved Jane bend knowledge to her will with the strength and understanding he had seen in his mother, and Thor would think to himself that though these mortals were frail, they were made of invisible, invincible steel.

"You were wrong, my brother," he told Loki as they broke bread on one of his visits. "They are not weak, and they will never be ruled."


	29. Made of Secrets: Bucky x Natasha

**A/N**: For likewinning's prompt author's choice, author's choice, We are survivors, of each other. We have been shark to one another, but also lifeboat. That counts for something. (Cat's Eye) at the Comment Fic LJ comm.

* * *

**************************Made of Secrets**

Natasha paused in the doorway of Bucky's new suite at the Avengers Tower. She crossed her arms and studied the small amount of detritus the man had brought with him. She watched his back stiffen as he registered her presence.

So much tension, so much history. They had been lovers; they had been enemies. They had lost each other; they had lost themselves. But in the end, they'd survived.

"Stark likes to surveil the premises," she said, something of a peace offering. It was intel he would appreciate.

Bucky looked up, nodded, but his eyes told her he wasn't listening to the words quite as much as to what she was packing in behind them. "You never liked to give away your secrets."

Natasha was made of secrets. She stepped in, walked about the perimeter, and returned to stand before him. "You have many of mine."

He breathed out for a long moment. "Do I?" His metal fingers flexed. "I don't—" He didn't say it. He didn't say he didn't remember. He looked up and frowned. "I know you. That counts for something, doesn't it?"

The words were as toneless as hers, but she stared almost expressionlessly into his almost expressionless face and heard there the flickers of sorrow, regret, and hope. She rested one hand over his, the metal one.

"It counts for something," she told him.


	30. For the Sake of the Hawk: Tony & Clint

**A/N**: Written for ciaranbochna's prompt at the Comment Fic LJ comm: Any, any, FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.

* * *

******************************For the Sake of the Hawk**

"There's a hawk in the local jail?" Tony asked as he padded into the dorm kitchen barefoot and bare-chested from his bedroom. "Isn't that animal cruelty or something?"

Bruce handed him a cup of coffee. "Not a hawk—Hawkeye. That guy in archery that Nat's dating. Remember him?"

Come to notice, Tony could see Nat, Natasha really, sitting at the kitchen table wearing a scowl and a pair of black boots she'd planted atop said table. She'd made friends with Bruce their first of year of college when they were assigned as study partners and started swapping stories about all the countries they'd visited. Tony's stories had been met with much less enthusiasm.

"So why do we care again?"

Natasha muttered something darkly in what was probably Russian and downed the last of her own cup of coffee.

Bruce elbowed Tony lightly. His look said, _My friend, remember?_

"Yeah, yeah, so what'd he do?" Tony went back for a second cup of brew.

"Steve cleaned it up," Bruce started, "but there was some graffiti of...um...inappropriate stuff about Natasha, Maria, Pepper, and some of the other girls on the boy's locker room wall."

At the mention of Pepper's name, Tony was all ears. "And?"

"And Clint went and shot paintball arrows at all of the offending players while they were in their jerseys," Natasha finished. "He should have let me do it," she muttered darkly again. She stared at the bottom of her empty mug as if it had offended her.

"Well, did he now?" Tony figured only Clint would be stupid enough to get between the girl and her target, but hey, they couldn't all be birdbrains. "For the sake of prisoners and the flight of birds, let's go get our hawk!"

Bruce blinked at him. "Uh, Tony?"

Natasha smirked. _"My_ hawk."

Tony grabbed his wallet without argument. Stupidity. Targets. Dangerous Russian female. "Whatever you say, sweet pea. What's his bail?"


	31. If I Can: Bucky x Natasha

**A/N**: For nevcolleil's prompt at the Comment Fic LiveJournal community: Any, any, "I been waitin' to smile / been holding it in for a while / I'll take you with me if I can / been dreamin' of this since a child..." (Partners theme song).

* * *

**********************************If I Can**

"James?"

The Winter Soldier looked up from cleaning his weapons against their return to the Red Room. Natalia was looking at him with that serious-faced mask she always wore when she was real, nothing but flickers of expression about the edges.

They both had times and seasons, days and hours when they became someone else and smiled or laughed as needed. It was part of being a spy. But Natalia did it better than he did. He only needed brute strength and skill. She needed to slip between personas as though they were her very self. When she took them off, there were no smiles underneath.

"Natalia." He set aside his gun and held out his arms so she could slide into them and settle on his lap. Her fingers wound tight into his hair; her forehead leaned against his.

"I'm leaving," she said.

He froze. She should not have told him this, his Natalia, his little flame. If they asked him, he would have to answer.

"They won't ask you," she whispered, her gaze steady and strong. She had read his worry in his eyes and the fractional tightening of his metal grip. "I want... James. I'll take you with me if I can."

The Winter Soldier looked at this woman who had once been a little girl dropped into the Red Room's arms from out the window of a burning building. He looked at what had grown from the girl he had trained and guarded among the other Black Widow candidates and their handlers. He looked at the light burning in his darkness between the freezings.

"You can't," he said flatly, certainly.

Under her soft trembling, there was steel that told him Natalia would do what needed to be done. She would leave without him.

He let her go, pushed her arms gently from him, and stood. She would go and she would smile and become the woman that little girl should have had not Ivan caught her and brought her to the Red Room and the KGB. She would go and leave the Winter Soldier in his dark prison because not even his Natalia was skilled enough to break him free.

"If they send me after you, I will kill you," he told her honestly, desolation in his heart if not his tone.

He saw the trembling leave her. She breathed in the Russian air. "You will try," she said. She breathed out.


	32. Laid Bare: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Written for mahmfic's prompt on the Comment Fic LJ comm: any, any, he felt completely naked, having all of his/her secrets exposed.

* * *

******************************************Laid Bare**

Natasha had only been laid bare twice.

The first time was when she realized she had no secrets left from Clint that mattered on the night they'd shared a blanket on a cold desert floor and he'd opened up his own vulnerabilities and painful past. She'd shared one last thing, one last painful secret to complete the exchange, then inhaled sharply with the knowledge of what she had done. He leaned back and she felt the muscles in his back tense against hers. His fingers wound through hers and she breathed again.

He had laid her bare, completely naked and exposed. It was an intimacy that went far deeper than sex and the reason their relationship never really took romance into account.

The second time, Natasha had been shielded only by the armor of her anger and love for Clint. She could forgive Clint for exposing her every secret to the malicious cruelty of a god of thieves and liars. She could accept that her precious trust had been stolen and abused and trampled on. She would never forgive Loki for doing it.

_"He told me everything,"_ that insidious whisper purred. Exposed, laid bare, compromised.

She tucked herself into Clint's arms that night after the battle and made new secrets that Loki would never be privy to.

Now Natasha stood by Steve's side without her other half and his hand tightening on hers to give her strength. She was laid bare and alone and exposed with all her secrets revealed to an entire world. She had given all to SHIELD and repentance and the cleaning of her ledger, but HYDRA had stolen even that. Now the world knew she was a liar and a killer, easily susceptible to being wielded by the wrong hands.

Never again, she promised herself. The walls went up and her hand touched the arrow at her throat. She had unfinished business, new secrets and selves to layer over her true self—Natasha—secrets the world would never know.


	33. You Put the Pep in Pepper: Pepper x Tony

**A/N**: Written for classics_lover's prompt on the Comment Fic LJ comm: Any fandom, any redhead + any, "I'm not ginger, it's called _strawberry blond(e)_."

* * *

**********************************************You Put the Pep in Pepper**

"So are you a natural redhead?" were some of the first words out of Tony Stark's mouth, followed by a smirk. "I absolutely love the ginger look."

Pepper Potts had already decided that despite Stark's reputation for being unable to keep a personal assistant for longer than a month (due to being an absolutely unreasonable, impossible boss to babysit, regardless of his overly generous tendencies), she would be the exception and stay. This generally involved biting her tongue on dozens of viable responses to put him in his place and taking none of his excuses and distractions from her doing her job of making him do his.

"So I'll go ahead and confirm your ten o'clock and have your suit ready in twenty minutes."

He rambled on without pausing from applying a wrench to machine parts. "I don't think I'm going to go. They can deal with you for the day. They'd much prefer it anyway."

"Twenty minutes," Pepper repeated, making him look up, eyebrows raised. "And I'm not ginger. It's called strawberry blonde." She smiled at him, shut the door behind her, and went to track down his suit.


	34. Everything Else Between: Natasha x Clint

**A/N**: Written for daria234's prompt on the Comment Fic LJ comm: MCU, Natasha/Clint, Clint is the only one who knows her real birthday.

* * *

**********************************************Everything Else Between**

"Barton," Natasha opened with as she dropped onto the bench beside him at the edge of the SHIELD gym. She sighed and toweled off her neck and shoulders.

Clint looked up at her from packing in his gear but needed no words to tell her he was listening. Her choice of name was telling enough about her mood.

She took a swig from the water bottle he'd set out beside his bag and swallowed hard. "When's my birthday?"

"Two months, three days from now," he answered perfunctorily, dispensing with his questions on why she needed to know. If she'd been willing to field questions, she would have called him Clint. "Anything else?"

Natasha shrugged, then cocked her head thoughtfully. "Am I allergic to peaches? I can never remember which."

"Pears."

"Ah."

Exchange complete, she shot him a dazzling smile and he grinned back at her. He slung the bag with his quiver and bow over his shoulder, and they walked out side by side companionably. It had to be Maria, he figured. Maria loved to make peaches and cream.

* * *

"So when's your birthday?" Maria prodded her friend for the umpteenth time. Natasha was notoriously stingy about handing out personal information, and Maria had been trying for years to get more than a ballpark figure out of her.

Natasha shrugged. "Fall. Any time I'm in the country is fine. Peaches are a go."

Maria sighed. "Fine. I'll tell HR to plan a convenient day instead of the actual one. _Again."_ There was discretion—a necessary trait in a successful covert operative—and then there was Natasha. It's not like a simple birthday, year of birth excluded was valuable intel if you weren't trying to throw the woman a party.

But Natasha nodded brusquely, Maria's frustration noted but ignored, and headed out for anywhere that wasn't SHIELD and knowing Natasha, that served ice cream.

* * *

Natasha was stingy with personal information for many reasons, not least of which was that she didn't remember most of it. She and Clint had spent weeks after her defection poring over her file and sorting memory from fact, implanted knowledge from actual truth. She never remembered her food allergies unless she remembered turning down foods because she was allergic. She had never even known her birthday until Clint suggested they should celebrate it. She'd had to dig backwards through the pages until she found the date.

She ordered strawberry ice cream and found a seat, waiting until Clint inerrantly found her and slid into the seat across with a chocolatey concoction called rocky road.

"So what do you want to do on your birthday?" he asked. He was the only one that knew the actual day. It was a day they always spent together.

"I'm feeling nostalgic," she commented. Under the table, she tucked one foot up on the edge of his chair. "Lisbon."

The city where he'd made a different call—on her birthday, an unwitting gift on both of their parts.

He grinned at her and stuck a spoonful of ice cream in his mouth.

They ate in companionable peace. They didn't need words between them. They had everything else.


	35. Blinding Properties of Love: Nat x Clint

**A/N**: For the prompt Avengers movieverse, Clint/Natasha, who you are is not where you've been; who you are is not what you did by tigriswolf on the Comment Fic LJ comm.

* * *

**********************************************The Blinding Properties of Love**

When Clint walked into the bathroom, Natasha was standing in front of the mirror, wrapped in a towel and staring at her own reflection. She met his reflected gaze as he came behind her to wrap his arms around her waist.

"You know what I see?" he asked quietly.

He didn't miss much, never had. Even years after they had settled into training their successors, young Avengers, and retired from the field, years after age should have begun to dim his legendary sight, Clint had never been more Hawkeye than in the quiet moments like this when he held her and looked into her eyes until he puzzled out what was going through her head.

Natasha looked at him questioningly.

Clint obliged. "I see a mother." He kissed her shoulder. "And wife. I see the most compassionate, caring, loyal, capable woman I have ever met."

Ten years ago, she would have retorted some comment about the blinding properties of love. It wasn't ten years ago. Her life had changed, she had wielded Mjolnir for a brief time in a battle, and her ledger finally was as clean as she'd ever be able to make it. She looked in the mirror, frowning, trying to see this person he described.

"I still see the Black Widow," she said. She considered herself candidly. Her own children had never really known that side of her, but even now, she would don it easily to protect those she loved.

"Who you are isn't who you've been or what you've done," Clint told her. He rested his chin on her head and waited a beat for her to acknowledge hearing him. "You are the person you've made yourself to be, and no one who has ever worked with you or been your friend would call you that now."

She blinked. She stared at her reflection, the still red hair, the mouth she could still turn to lies. But there was truth there and much closer to the surface than it had ever been before.

She turned in his arms, stood up on tiptoes, and gave him a kiss. "You never did play by the rules," she murmured.

"Would that be the rule that no one gets to know the real you or the rule that no one makes you fall in love?" He smiled softly, eyes crinkling with good humor.

"Your children were born degenerates," she countered. She had fallen in love with them before she could hold them in her arms.

"They never had a chance," he agreed and finally kissed her.

She didn't feel like the Black Widow. At all.


	36. Tell Me Who I Am (to You): Nat x Bucky

**A/N**: Prompt by likewinning at the Comment Fic LJ comm: MCU, Bucky/any, song lyrics of Prague

* * *

**********************************************Tell Me Who I Am (to You)**

"That is a lovely dress," James noted.

His stare was intense. Natasha enjoyed the heaviness of his gaze upon her. She pulled up the thin red straps and smoothed the skirt over her hidden knives, then shot him a small, coy smile.

"The mark likes red," she told him, as if she didn't know perfectly well that James liked red on her too.

Something flickered in his eyes, but he turned that intense gaze of his back to the window. He was casing the street before they left the hotel room. He was the Winter Soldier, untouchable to the young woman he had spent so long training.

Natasha studied the unreadable line of his jaw, the tense alertness in his posture. She couldn't quite read him, as good as she was, the best Black Widow produced by the program so far. She could bed the Winter Soldier, draw him in with a gaze, a look, a pretty red dress that clung to her curves, but she could never know if she was comfort or love to him, a haven in the storm or just a pretty mark and trainee he kept under control with his regard.

Silence stretched. He looked over at her, seeming curious that she had not filled it with the lighthearted voice of her alias as she slid into her cover. _Something_ flickered in his eyes and she wondered, for just a moment, if she was the only one that didn't know.


	37. Asgard, We Have a Problem: Nat x Bucky

**A/N**: For evil_little_dog's prompt at the Comment Fic LJ comm: MCU, Any+Any, We are gonna sacrifice to and pray to every god in this world that he doesn't find out about her sleeping with his old roommate.

* * *

**********************************************Asgard, We Have a Problem**

"Thor!" Tony's voice echoed through the communal floor. "Thor! We need you!"

Thor shouted back from the kitchen. "The food is not finished!"

Clint appeared around the corner with a furtive look in his eyes. "Team meeting before the cap gets back. It's an emergency."

Thor looked puzzled but turned off the stove and set the griddle to one side. He followed Clint into the living room where Bruce was rubbing his face with one hand, Tony had ruined his hair by raking one hand through it, and Sam was shaking his head over crossed arms while muttering darkly.

Tony plunged right in, gesticulating wildly as he spoke and paced. "You know Steve's been totally wrapped up in this search for Bucky, then rehabilitating him and all that, and all was fine and good, even if I did have to share a floor of the Tower that I'd rather have kept for other things, but now we have a real problem because our resident Russian spy neglected to mention her old history with Bucko and this could be very, very bad."

"Old history?" Thor asked.

"Yeah," Clint commented as he dropped on the couch. He was the only one not looking concerned and had probably known the details of this 'old history' long before he'd ever met Steve. _"That_ kind of history."

"She told Steve she knew about him," Sam added, "but she never mentioned she _knew_ him."

"And we are gonna sacrifice to and pray to every god in this world that Steve doesn't find out about her sleeping with his old roommate," Tony summarized. "So Thor, you're it."

"I don't think that falls under the god of thunder," Bruce pointed out mildly.

"Fertility, relationships... Same difference, right?" Tony looked at Thor again. "But if you know a better choice, I'll take a reference."

Caught flat-footed, it took a moment for Thor to think about who was good at what sort of problem, but nothing in his history seemed to find deity the right approach to this. "Mother?"

"We'll take it."


	38. Tea is Tea: Natasha x Clint

**A/N**: For with_rainfall's prompt at the Comment Fic LJ comm: Any, any, microwaving cold tea

* * *

**********************************************Tea is Tea**

"Barbarian," Natasha hissed and whisked the cup of cold tea out of the microwave. "You reheat tea on a stove."

Clint just gave her that easygoing shrug of his and kept running down the mission brief. "Tea is tea."

Natasha had been pouring the cup into a glass coffeepot, but she paused and sighed. "This isn't even tea, is it? This came out of a teabag."

That stopped him. "Well..." He saw her look and let the words trail off.

To Clint, tea was tea, but to Natasha, vodka was only vodka if it was the 'good' kind from Russia and tea was only tea if it had been brewed up properly from loose leaf.

He closed the laptop and came around the counter to fish out a bag from the pantry. "I'll make you some tea."

"You do that."


	39. Remember When: Bucky

**A/N**: For tigriswolf's prompt in the Comment Fic LJ comm: author's choice, author's choice, an amnesiac is given their old diaries to read through; they don't recognize the writer at all

* * *

**********************************************Remember When**

Steve had given him a stack of journals to read. It was a long slog of interesting but dated stories of decades ago, but he kept reading because Steve had asked him to and he wanted to stay here with Steve, which meant letting Steve make the rules until he could remember for himself.

But it really was tedious.

When the man introduced as Bruce walked in, glad for the excuse, he set the current journal down on the couch beside him.

"How many books did this guy write?" he asked with a weary sigh.

Bruce hesitated.

Bruce's eyes tracked to the kitchen, and he noted the mug in Bruce's hand. Coffee? Tea? Tea. He nodded to himself. Bruce liked tea.

"Why don't you ask Steve that?" Bruce brought out very slowly.

He scowled. He liked Steve but he wanted to make other friends too, even if Steve was the only one who seemed to remember him. He shrugged and picked up the journal again. He flashed a tight and totally insincere smile. "I'll just keep reading."

Bruce stayed hesitant in the living room for a little longer before finally making his way to the kitchen in silence.

The clock ticked loudly.

He was tired of being the only one who didn't know any answers.


	40. Remind Me Not to Tick You Off: NatxClint

**A/N**: For cghardy's prompt on the Comment Fic LJ comm: any, any, cleaning up after a messy kill

* * *

**********************************************Remind Me Not to Tick You Off**

Clint whistled under his breath as he lowered his bow. "I take it you needed to vent?" he asked dryly. He kept close to the windows of the abandoned warehouse where he could keep an eye out for hostiles.

Natasha glared at him and went back to pouring oil over the...decidedly messier kill than her usual. She stripped out of her dress and tossed it into the pile.

Clint sighed and went for his bag to dig out some spare clothes.

"I'm burning the mess," she said curtly.

He watched as she shimmied into one of his shirts, but he didn't comment. She had taken out some kind of frustration or anger on the mark, and she clearly didn't want to talk about it, which of course meant she _ought_ to talk about it, but did it look like Clint had a death wish? He'd nag her after she'd put the knives away and climbed into a bathtub to soak.

Wordlessly, he passed her a match. The fire was spectacular. 

* * *

"Feeling better?" Clint asked ten hours later when they were both throwing off dirty clothes from weary bodies.

Natasha's long sigh as she eyed the bathtub was as close to satisfied and contented as he expected it to get tonight. "I do actually." She glanced at him, lifted a brow when she saw his expression, then gave that small smug smile bordering on a smirk. "It was rather therapeutic." She stretched catlike before sinking into the tub.

"Better than bubbles?"

"Better than bubbles," she agreed. She pulled him down beside her as he climbed in. "But not better than you."

"So what was that about anyway?"

Natasha surprised Clint by not only allowing his arm to drape around her shoulders but also by snuggling into him and humming contentedly as she did. "He told me all the things he was going to do to destroy you."

Clint leaned back with a groan. "One godling wannabe does not give you leave to be overprotective."

"I wasn't." That was definitely a smirk. "I was ticked off."

And heaven help the poor soul who made her genuinely angry. Natasha's dispassion was legendary.

He aimed his next words carefully, having frequently been numbered among those poor souls. "Remind me not to steal the covers in the morning."

She shot him an annoyed glance. "That's different."

"See." This time, Clint was the one giving a smug grin. "Overprotective."

"If I wasn't exhausted, I'd be ticked off now." But Natasha didn't budge a centimeter from her snug resting place.

"No, you wouldn't," he murmured, kissing the top of her head.

She did not disagree.


	41. The World is Too Much: Maria & Natasha

**A/N**: Prompt: Any, Any, Things only end so that they can begin again by doreyg on the Comment Fic LiveJournal community. Title taken from the poem "The World Is Too Much with Us," a sonnet by William Wordsworth.

* * *

**********************************************The World is Too Much With Us**

"So SHIELD is gone," Maria said quietly, fingers turning her shot glass as she stared at the wall on the other side of Natasha's new apartment.

Natasha sighed and leaned forward to snatch up the vodka and refill her own glass. "See how long that lasts."

Regimes fell every day. She tended not to weep over that.

"It didn't matter who took it down, Maria. It was going to happen eventually." She shook her head at Maria's disbelieving look. "Outside or inside, it was still just another enemy. We'll move on."

"Fury's going to give it to Coulson." Maria gave the vodka slightly disgusted look. She'd been Deputy Director for years, and she'd done right by Fury and SHIELD. Perhaps it shouldn't have mattered to be overlooked, but it did.

"Coulson's still an idealist," Natasha pointed out.

"You should have heard him." Maria sighed. "He couldn't believe it was over."

They fell silent a moment. The bottle exchanged hands, glasses were refilled, and wordless comfort settled between them.

Finally, Natasha broke the silence. "We're realists, and the Avengers always was his baby."

"I never believed in it."

"This world needs realists." She glanced over at her friend.

Maria looked like she was brooding, helped along by too much alcohol, but then she laughed. "I guess it's too much to think Fury does."

"Sure he does," Natasha disagreed. "Just not as the new founder. SHIELD needs to rebuild, and that's going to take time the world doesn't have. We're going to keep doing what we've always done."

"I'll drink to that." Maria leaned forward and held out her glass to Natasha.

"A friend wouldn't let you drink any more," Natasha commented dryly. "You're drunk."

"A best friend would hand me the bottle."

Natasha smiled and did.


	42. Soft and Sweet: Clint x Natasha

**A/N**: Not prompted, but where else would I stick it?

* * *

**********************************************Soft and Sweet**

Her body is soft in places it didn't used to be. Clint remembers firm muscle and sinew, and now there is this slight curve of her stomach under his hand.

"You should see yourself," she says softly into the morning.

They are still half-tangled together on the bed.

"Your eyes look like you've never seen anything so wonderful." Natasha smiles at him, just that soft hint of expression as her stomach is still that soft hint of a curve in her first trimester.

He leans over and kisses her belly through his splayed fingers. Clint never told her how much he wanted children. Too risky, too dangerous, and too heartbreakingly unlikely and impractical, he'd given up on that dream so long ago that it took an accident like this to make it happen.

"I love you," he whispers to the child inside of Natasha—_his_ child.

Love is for children, and Natasha's smile stays as her fingers card affectionately through his hair.


	43. Word of Advice: Tony & Steve & Clint

**A/N**: Prompt by sapphire2309 at the LJ Comment Fic comm: any, any, We Do Not Touch The First Ladies [Scandal].

* * *

**********************************************Word of Advice**

"Buddy," Tony stopped the new intern with a hand on his shoulder, then patted it amicably. "Word of advice. We do not touch the first ladies. I like you and I'd like you to stick around."

"But—"

"Now look over there." Tony looked pointedly but did not gesture or otherwise attract the attention of Pepper, Maria, and Natasha discussing something quietly among themselves. "Unless you are assisting one of them because they specifically asked you for something, do not touch the first ladies. Do not bother them. Do not interrupt them or pester them with any questions. Find your immediate supervisor and ask for help."

"But I was told—"

"Trust me on this one, buddy. Ignore what anyone else tells you. They're lying maliciously or ignorantly." Tony nodded very, very seriously to underscore his words. "Now you know the truth."

The intern glanced helplessly toward the three women, then back to the message in his hand. Captain America had told him very specifically to deliver this to them. "I'll go ask my supervisor."

"Good lad." Tony patted him on the back then headed around the corner to throw up his hands at Steve glumly passing Clint a ten dollar bill.

"I told him word was getting around," Clint said with a grin.

"People _used_ to trust me," Steve muttered.

"You mean before they realized you were human?" Clint shook his head and grinned at Stark. "You do realize you threw the whole thing though." He passed back the ten. "Fair's fair, Cap. Bet you can't get that new receptionist to break up their party."

"You're on."


End file.
